Mr. Robot is a new show from USA, the network that brought you shows like Suits, White Collar, Burn Notice, and Covert Affairs. In keeping with lighthearted, fun-centric USA tradition, Mr. Robot is a psychological thriller about an anti-social anarchist hacker vigilante who uses his skills to protect people he can't possibly connect with while wrestling with mental illness, depression, and his own fragile sense of reality. Fun fun fun!

The show premieres June 24th, but the pilot is already available for free on Youtube. You can watch it here.EDIT: Not anymore, apparently.

WHO'S IN IT?

RAMI MALEK as ELLIOT
Elliot lives a double life. During the day, he is a cybersecurity engineer for a huge global conglomerate he loving despises. At night, he is a hacker vigilante who exposes creeps, cheaters, and pedophiles through anonymous tips over the internet (and sometimes in person). He sucks at talking to people, has severe social anxiety, and is so loving lonely that he literally starts talking to an imaginary friend (us!) to keep himself sane. We see the pilot through Elliot's eyes, and his mind is a messed-up place to be.

CHRISTIAN SLATER as RANDOM HOBO/MR. ROBOT
A weird hobo who takes interest in Elliot and won't stop following him around. Elliot isn't even entirely sure he's real. He is actually the leader of an anarchist hacker group known as F Society. He wants Elliot's help in taking down a global conglomerate and changing the world for the better, and it just so happens he's targeting the conglomerate that Elliot is paid to protect.

Other, less important people include Portia Doubleday as Angela, Elliot's childhood friend and co-worker, Ben Rapaport as Ollie, Angela's douchebag boyfriend, Carly Chaikin as Darlene, a fellow hacker, Michael Gill as Gideon, Angela and Elliot's boss, and Martin Wallström as Tyrell Wellick, Senior Vice President of Technologies for Evil Corp.

WHY SHOULD I WATCH IT?

I'm glad you asked! There are several reasons, actually. Let's list them out...

1. IT'S PRETTY loving GOOD.
The pilot's getting rave reviews all around, with stuff like 'drat near perfect' and 'on track to be a modern classic' being thrown around when discussing it. As of right now it's got a 9.4 rating from over 8,000 users on IMDB. In addition, it won the audience award at SXSW, and was an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival (which is apparently pretty rare for a TV show). The pilot was directed by Niels Arden Oplev, the guy who directed the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, so it's cinematic as hell to boot. Only time will tell if the rest of the series lives up to the pilot, but for now, the pilot is all we have, and the pilot is great.

2. HACKING THAT ISN'T STUPID.
Most of what Hollywood considers 'hacking' is actually just using computers to do magic, and makes anyone with actual IT knowledge either want to bash their head into the wall or laugh themselves into a coma. Fortunately, Mr. Robot isn't like that. Creator Sam Esmail is a techie, and he portrays the hacking realistically and lets the IT stuff stand on its own without too much explanation. Elliot doesn't use computer-magic to get people's personal information; he gets it through clever social engineering. The more realistic hacking actually makes Elliot cooler than most TV hackers, because he can't hide behind a computer the whole time; he's got to go out into the world and pull some pretty ballsy stuff to get the information he needs.

3. IT'S BASICALLY ABOUT A GOON.
Elliot is a loving trainwreck of a human being. He thinks men in black are following him everywhere, he creeps on everyone he knows because he's more comfortable hacking them than having an actual conversation. He hates being touched and has no idea how to respond to social situations. He concocts eloquent, impassioned speeches in his head but is too nervous to actually say them out loud so he usually just winds up staring off into space like a moron. He does drugs and makes bad decisions while high, and occasionally just cries alone in his room because of how desperately loving lonely he is. He's just like us!

Seriously though, Elliot is a great character. He's got most of the negative qualities associated with being a nerd, but he still comes across as someone you root for. He's definitely somewhere on The Spectrum, but he's not insufferably smug or the butt of a joke, nor does he use it as an excuse to be an rear end in a top hat. He's basically the best person he knows how to be. Sure, he's an isolated, introverted, paranoid, obsessive creep, but at least he uses his creep powers to do good. He's a justice creep.

SPOILER RULES:

Like I said, the show technically premieres on June 24th, but USA posted the pilot on Youtube for free, so you can watch it there, or find it in any of the usual places if you're geoblocked. I've tried to avoid too many spoilers in the first post, but beyond that, everything in the pilot is fair game, so I suggest you watch it before you scroll any further (if spoilers are something you care about).

A FINAL WORD:

This show suffers from aggressively bad marketing that's trying way too hard to be edgy. The actual show does have some political commentary, but it's not nearly as bad as the promos make it out to be, and is mostly due to the fact that we are seeing the world through Elliot's eyes, and Elliot might just be loving crazy. So if you were put off by the ads, I can't really blame you, but I encourage you to give the pilot a chance and see what you think.

That pilot was really good and I'm excited to see where they will take it. Looking forward to more Elliot/Mr Robot interaction because if the whole show is just Elliot in his own head that'll get old fast.

I loved it. I'm already getting a very smart vibe from how everything was laid out. Since Elliot is a schizophrenic (at least they hinted at that with him being on pills and the men in black thing) I'm assuming that there's going to be tons of things that we're taking as "real" in fact won't be later on, or at least won't be the same things we think they are.

Also this is the first show in a looong time that even the pilot is worth multiple viewings before any other episodes are out.

If you pause and read the articles linked to Fun Society it appears that quite a few murders happened in the amusement park around when the last owner died, including at least one other also targeting a local business owner. I wonder if that's just flavor text or if it will pop back up. As for the ending (Elliot sanity/ending speculation) When Elliot enters Evil Bad Guy place it's raining outside and quite gray but when he reaches the top floor it's barely overcast. It's grasping at straws that will probably mean nothing but the drastic weather change might indicate one or the other is an Elliot delusion

If you pause and read the articles linked to Fun Society it appears that quite a few murders happened in the amusement park around when the last owner died, including at least one other also targeting a local business owner. I wonder if that's just flavor text or if it will pop back up. As for the ending (Elliot sanity/ending speculation) When Elliot enters Evil Bad Guy place it's raining outside and quite gray but when he reaches the top floor it's barely overcast. It's grasping at straws that will probably mean nothing but the drastic weather change might indicate one or the other is an Elliot delusion

This reminds me: Read the text of the article that pops up on Angela's screen during the DDoS attack. There's some weird, off-kilter mention of knuckle-dragging cavemen evolving or some poo poo. It's just weird enough not to seem like flavor text to me, but it doesn't seem at all related to the plot.

(Elliot sanity/ending speculation) When Elliot enters Evil Bad Guy place it's raining outside and quite gray but when he reaches the top floor it's barely overcast. It's grasping at straws that will probably mean nothing but the drastic weather change might indicate one or the other is an Elliot delusion

It could also just mean the building is really, really tall.

I'm tempted to start taking bets on whether or not Elliot is Tyler-Durdening himself, and to what extent. Is Elliot Mr. Robot? Is Elliot everyone in F Society? Is Elliot Flipper?

It might be easier just to take every scene and sort into Real or Not Real. I don't know if he's full schizo, but there are definite implications that Elliot has had delusions before.

Have been waiting for this thread to appear since I watched the pilot last week!

One word: Amazing!

I couldn't believe how fantastic the pilot was. I'm really hoping that it continues to live up to the hype. The attention to detail was intense, and its adherence to real life social engineering/hacking added to the immersion!

Can we all take a moment to acknowledge that a network which has primarily existed as a dumping ground for 5 year old action movies has this show? I mean in all honesty that surprises the poo poo out of me. Thank you AMC for showing the way.

No different to House, where we have highly trained doctors explaining to each other what an elevated ALT score means. They would already know this stuff themselves, but the audience doesn't so you get these scenes instead.

At least it was technically accurate

My favourite part was him burning the coffee shop owner at the start with his TOR takeover explanation.

My favourite part was him burning the coffee shop owner at the start with his TOR takeover explanation.

That whole scene is great. It's also hilarious when you think about it from the other guy's standpoint. This -eyed little fucker comes out of nowhere and just goes "Hey, you've never seen or spoken to me before but I know literally everything about you and I'm about to burn you to the ground. "

I've watched the pilot and I hate the angsty socially retarded MC (that internal soliloquy at the therapist's office was vomit-inducing) as well as the cool hobo hacker Christian Slater. Since the show will probably revolve around them, it's safe to say I'll hate it too.

I've watched the pilot and I hate the angsty socially retarded MC (that internal soliloquy at the therapist's office was vomit-inducing) as well as the cool hobo hacker Christian Slater. Since the show will probably revolve around them, it's safe to say I'll hate it too.

You know, I also hate internal monologue about how much everyone else around you sucks and isn't as smart as you, it's an easy way to differentiate the protagonist from the rest of the crowd but I think in this show its an important (if not an awkward) small step to show how Elliot is out of step with the rest of us. Plus it helps play out the "may be crazy" or "may not be crazy" angle. If you've got a better way to play that out in front of the screen there's a ton of writers who want to know what it is.

He's not saying the show's badly written or whatever, just that he hates Elliot, and since Elliot pretty much carries the whole show on his shoulders, yeah, he's probably not gonna like the show that follows. Which seems like a fair assessment to me.

Interesting implication I just noticed: Elliot says he was forced to see his current therapist. I'm guessing 'forced' is a shorter way of saying 'court-ordered,' which means he's been in trouble with the law before, but I don't think it had anything to do with his hacking (which is also super-illegal, in case you were wondering, and would probably have resulted in the confiscation of all his nice toys). So what'd he do that landed him in court-ordered therapy?

I think I was onboard as soon as I noticed that the main character was rocking the exact same flavour of linux as me, down to the loving theme. Also, the subject matter is something I've really felt like I've wanted to see a show tackle for a long time now. "Please tell me you're seeing this too" still haunts me.

I think I was onboard as soon as I noticed that the main character was rocking the exact same flavour of linux as me, down to the loving theme. Also, the subject matter is something I've really felt like I've wanted to see a show tackle for a long time now. "Please tell me you're seeing this too" still haunts me.

The awkward discussion about kde vs gnome he had with the suit reminded me way too much of a particular "teacher" at ITT who used his introduction to linux class to try and indoctrinate the libertarian "linux bros" philosophy and thus make friends. Also, while I only recognize the lead from a sub-par Tom Hanks movie called Larry Crowne, I think he might have been the inspiration for the design of American Dad's Stan Smith.

Isn't it weird how scientists can imagine all the matter of the universe exploding out of a dot smaller than the head of a pin, but they can't come up with a more evocative name for it than The Big Bang?

This show was fantastic, even if I'm pretty sure at least half of what was shown didn't actually happen because Elliot is loving nuts

The pilot is really well crafted and manages to find a balance between Elliot's mental illness, his attempts to cope, his good intentions, and the "oh society is so terrible" stuff that makes him engaging and not nearly as grating as the whole "vigilante hacker" thing could have been. I'm on board for the rest of the season, though I'm worried the show might end up launching itself off the rails really fast if they can't keep up this level of quality; it'd be way too easy to go too far with all the edgy antisocial hacker stuff or to horribly botch the portrayal of Elliot's mental health problems and I hope they can keep dodging those pitfalls.

The pilot is really well crafted and manages to find a balance between Elliot's mental illness, his attempts to cope, his good intentions, and the "oh society is so terrible" stuff that makes him engaging and not nearly as grating as the whole "vigilante hacker" thing could have been. I'm on board for the rest of the season, though I'm worried the show might end up launching itself off the rails really fast if they can't keep up this level of quality; it'd be way too easy to go too far with all the edgy antisocial hacker stuff or to horribly botch the portrayal of Elliot's mental health problems and I hope they can keep dodging those pitfalls.

It's definitely a wild card, and it doesn't help that the show's creator has done like nothing else. He made a movie called Comet last year and directed a short film called Deep Down in Florida in 2004, and that's basically it according to his IMDB page. But he's said in interviews and such that he started writing this as a movie and realized on page 90 that it needed to be either A. a ridiculously long movie that would never be made, or B. a TV show. He's also said he's got plans for four or five seasons worth of stuff, and that he knows how he wants it to end. He's got the journey mapped out in his head, at least, so that gives me some comfort. The easiest way for a show to get lost is for it to have no loving clue where it even wants to go.

Has anyone else signed up for the contest on USA's Mr. Robot site? They're giving away $100,000. I put all my info in, and less than an hour later, Mr. Robot sent me through Paypal. Definitely brightened my day.

Isn't it weird how scientists can imagine all the matter of the universe exploding out of a dot smaller than the head of a pin, but they can't come up with a more evocative name for it than The Big Bang?

Elliot is smart enough to know bitcoins are poo poo . So does Slater for that matter.

Wait I'm suppose to put my paypal email address in this form? We should have a thread with codes in coupons....

Also, lol at them using paypal instead of bitcoins. My immersion.

It wasn't made clear how or what amount they were paying out. The email I used just happened to be my paypal email. I thought I was entering for a chance at $100,000, so I was pretty surprised when I got the $10 so quickly .

"..and then came the black crow, herald of doom, who foretold the coming of death."

Grimey Drawer

I really liked the pilot a lot, but i'm afraid it will start to deviate from the American Psycho monologue and become some kind of hacking-superfriends-team show.

I was pretty sad when Christian Slater showed up, to be honest. While I don't really have a problem with Christian Slater, I was really digging the one-character show we had going for a while, as he trudged through his hosed up gray world.

If none of the other hackers are real and are just figments of his unraveling mind, this will be the best show on television. It could go either way right now but I bet it goes the boring safe route.

edit:
I've been trying to explain the show to my roommate, trying to get him to watch it:

"It's like 'The Matrix' except Neo never meets Morpheus. He just stays at that lovely programming job and silently judges everyone."

Not bad. Still not going in with full support because that advertising turned me off something fierce, but not bad.

A few observations/questions

1) What is the accent of the vice president? Because if that bonsoir was supposed to be French, either I don't know French accents(possible) or that is one lovely accent.
2) I enjoyed the psychiatrist realizing she was about to be Keyser Soze'd when he mentioned the Hunger Games
3) Does he have romantic feelings for Angela or is it just a deep, deep friendship?
4) I hope this turns out to be like St. Elsewhere and the final shot is him typing qwerty constantly while Flipper is on the TV